


RETURN POLICY

by orphan_account



Series: Gifts from the Heart [7]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Flashbacks, Minor Character Death, Murder, Old Friends, Sexual Content, Violence, coarse language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-22
Updated: 2016-01-22
Packaged: 2018-05-15 14:12:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5788249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dalish's plans for the Inquisitor and her lovers are now being discovered by others. She can't let anyone ruin what she's planned for so many years and she will do anything to stop them from being eradicated - anything.</p><p>The Inquisitor finds out the truth about what happened to the Bull, as well as what happened to her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	RETURN POLICY

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys  
> I'm finally using 'Rich Text' now because last I used it, it stuffed up.  
> Anyway.....  
> You guys are probably gonna hate me after you read Part 7 ;(  
> Hope you like it and continue to read the 'Gifts from the Heart' series :)  
> Thanks,  
> Missjapplez

PART 7: RETURN POLICY

Cullen checked the locks to the windows and the balcony one last time before leaving to summon food for the Inquisitor. As he looked behind him when he exited the door, he saw her tickling her infant son who was laying on her thighs. Archard’s gurgles made the Inquisitor laugh, even in her state and it had given Cullen great pleasure. He smiled to himself as he closed the door behind him.

Cullen hadn’t even taken more than two steps before he collided with him. Cullen straightened his posture and held his head high, not daring to break eye contact.  
“Bull.” He spat, clenching his knuckles. He saw the rage and confusion marked in his features. ‘He’s wandering what I was doing the Inquisitor’s quarters’, he told himself.

Bull stiffened and Cullen couldn’t help the scowl that came to his face as Bull spoke, “Commander.”  
Cullen took a step closer to Bull and gritted his teeth, “What are you doing here?” Bull’s face turned an even darker shade of red at his words, yet his shoulder’s slumped a little.  
“It’s not what she thinks,” he started to say, his voice sounding desperate. Cullen rolled his eyes and couldn’t help the words that came out of his mouth next.  
“You fucked someone while you were in a committed relationship and it wasn’t her! Yeah Bull, I think it is exactly what she thinks; you betrayed her!”

“No!” Bull objected, shaking his head, “I was drugged! Dalish drugged me and it m-made me do these thi- things!” Bull clenched and unclenched his fists as he paced back and forth. Cullen rubbed the nape of his neck and tapped his foot impatiently.  
“I love her Cullen! And my son! Please, even ask Sera! She saw Dalish drug me!” Cullen snapped; he stopped Bull in his tracks and forced him to look at him. Bull let out a shaky breath then gulped.  
Cullen’s voice was slathered in disgust, as he spoke, “If you really loved her, you would have made love to her and not that elf.”

  
***

  
“Cremisius,” Dalish said, a smirk spreading across her face as she stopped before the second in command.  
“Dalish.” Krem said, his voice grave. He looked to the strange vile he’d noticed she’d carried with her constantly for the last 10 months, he continued. “Why have you been sleeping with the Chief?”  
Dalish laughed and tucked a hand behind her and placed it on the hilt of her hidden dagger. “Because he asked me to.” She said smugly. He turned his back to her and watched as the new Charger’s sparred.

“He wouldn’t do that,” he told her, though more to himself as the realisation hit him; every night, before the Chief and Dalish had slept together, they’d been drinking and Dalish had always been watching the Chief closely, too closely. Krem quickly turned back to face her, “ _You-_ ” he started to say before was cut off  as Dalish plunged her dagger into his abdomen.

  
“Come with me!” she hissed as crimson, hot blood spewed from the man’s mouth. She scanned her surroundings, and made sure nobody had seen or heard what had just happened. She’d been successful in casting a cloaking spell; no one seemed to have noticed the commotion. She smiled and steadied Krem, pulling one of his arms around her.

“It’s ok Krem da le crème.” She said, dragging him to the outside gates of Skyhold, “‘Tevinter did this - they found you.” After making her way out of the gates, she walked a few hundred metres, thankful her cloaking spell was still holding, then pushed Krem under one of the huge pine trees that lined the road to Skyhold. She pulled out a piece of clean parchment and took her time writing a Tevinter assassination letter – it had to be convincing. Finally she finished and turned her gaze back to Krem; he was deathly pale now and the rise and fall of his chest was slow. With a sigh, she tucked the ‘letter’ into Krem’s shirt. Krem gasped at her touch and reached out to her. Dalish shrieked, swatting his hand away. When she caught her breath she spoke again, “I’m sorry Krem but I can’t have you telling everyone.” And with that, she walked away from her former brother in arms, wiping away the blood on her dagger as she did with no sympathy in her mind at all.

  
***

  
Phoenix patted Archard’s back, trying to calm him after the yelling had finished. Bull… he – he’d come to see her, to tell her he’d been drugged and then… and then … Cullen he’d, he’d told Bull that if he had really loved her, he would have made love to her instead. ‘He’s right’. She gasped as the thought struck her. Archard cried even louder at the sudden jolt.  
“Oh no!” she said, tears forming in her eyes, “I’m sorry, my darling, Mama’s so sorry.” She now rubbed his back reassuringly, just like Cullen had when she’d been crying. Her lip drooped and she kissed Archard’s forehead, “I love you, my son.” She breathed. So this is what love feels like? She thought to herself. “Oh my god,” she said; she was having an epiphany. Love. She’d never loved Bull! It was a lie! All a lie! She realised as images she’d never remembered, flashed in her mind.\

  
*

  
_Phoenix made her way to Cullen’s office, along the battlements, ready to hear the new ‘reports’. Oh she couldn’t lie to herself; she needed to see him! A moment without Cullen like an eternity. She yearned for him, for his loving gaze and his touch._  
_Suddenly she collided with something. “Oh I’m sorry!” she said, steadying herself. She noticed Dalish was standing before her, looking quite flustered._

_“Oh it’s my fault!” Dalish had said, suddenly placing a shaking hand on the Inquisitor’s shoulder. Phoenix watched her hand and tried to take a step back as she did, but she couldn’t. Suddenly Dalish pushed her into one of the merlons and lifted Phoenix’s chin with one hand to make her look directly into her eyes._

_“You don’t love Cullen. He’s pathetic. You are lustful and Cullen won’t satisfy you. But,” Dalish said, leaning closer to her, “the Iron Bull will. You will want Bull and not Cullen. Leave him, you don’t_ love _him.”_

  
_*_

Phoenix shrieked and lost her balance slightly as the flashback ended. She had double vision and struggled to stand. As soon as she did a wave of emotion hit her. She managed to place Archard in his bassinet before she lost her balance again. She hit the floor hard but she dismissed the pain. She’d been hypnotised! _Dalish had hypnotised her and hidden her feelings for Cullen and then replaced him for Bull!_ She informed herself, placing her hand upon her forehead. She had loved Cullen! “No,” she told herself aloud. _She loved Cullen._  
As if on cue, Cullen entered her chambers.  



End file.
